Today the Scottish Album of the Year Award judges were announced.
They will now pick the Shortlist of 10 albums and the winner of the Scottish Album of the Year Award. The Shortlist will be announced on 8 October 2020. The public vote will open on 5 October 2020 and music fans are invited to have their SAY during a 72 hour vote. The online vote is free and allows one vote per person.The Longlisted album with the most public votes secures a place on the shortlist and a minimum price of £1,000.
The 2020 Judging Panel, chaired by John Williamson, includes Ally McCrae (Producer, BBC), Charlotte Dryden (CEO, NI Music Prize), Dirk Löwenberg(Head of Member Services, GVL), Edith Bowman (Broadcaster), Fay Milton (Founder of SAY Award charity partner, Music Declares Emergency), Jack Saunders (Presenter, BBC Radio 1), Jess Brough (Founder/Director, Fringe of Colour), Kieran Hurley (Playwright), Maurits Westerik (Director, Best Kept Secret Festival), Solène Lorry (Head of Label & Artist Relations (France), YouTube), Wezi Mhura (Creative Producer & Founder of AfriFest & BLM Mural Trail).
The main prize of Scottish Album of the Year wins £20.000 for their achievement and that will be announced on 29 October 2020. There were originally 362 submissions entered for the SAY Award and these have already been whittled down to 20.
General Manager of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA), Robert Kilpatrick said, “It’s now time for music fans to ‘have their SAY’, as we move one step closer to announcing this year’s Scottish Album of the Year.
The public vote is a key opportunity for music fans to play their part in determining The SAY Award Shortlist. Supporting your favourite Longlisted album at the public vote stage gives it the best possible chance of being Shortlisted, and with that a guaranteed minimum prize of £1000.
We’re also delighted to reveal the 11 individuals making up The SAY Award Judging Panel for 2020. For the first time this year, the panel includes three international judges from EU nations, providing vital international links for Scottish music at a time where opportunities are highly limited.
With judges from France, Germany and the Netherlands on our panel this year, we’re delighted to be sharing and celebrating our cultural identity both domestically and internationally; allowing the power of music to connect us across borders and keeping Scottish music at the forefront of the international conversation during these challenging times.”
The SAY Award 2020 Longlist, in alphabetical order, is:
Anna Meredith FIBS
Blanck Mass Animated Violence Mild
Bossy Love Me + U
Callum Easter Here Or Nowhere
Cloth Cloth
Comfort Not Passing
Declan Welsh & The Decadent West Cheaply Bought, Expensively Sold
Elephant Sessions What Makes You
Erland Cooper Sule Skerry
Fat-Suit Waifs & Strays
Free Love Extreme Dance Anthems
Honeyblood In Plain Sight
Karine Polwart Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook
Lewis Capaldi Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent
Mezcla Shoot the Moon
The Ninth Wave Infancy
NOVA RE-UP
Sacred Paws Run Around The Sun
SHHE SHHE
Vistas Everything Changes In The End
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